


and the lows are so extreme, the good feels fucking cheap.

by waytothedawn



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Because that's my shit, Gen, MAJOR SPOILERS FOR CHAPTER 13, also implied ignis/prompto, but that's for another fic possibly coming soon, just warning ya now
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-23
Updated: 2016-12-23
Packaged: 2018-09-11 06:41:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8963716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waytothedawn/pseuds/waytothedawn
Summary: sometimes all you need is a literal shoulder to cry on, and someone to listen. 
and often, it can come from a place you don't expect.





	

**Author's Note:**

> a super big thank you to my friends rosie and rie for beta-ing this for me! same as i said in the tags, big spoilers for post altissa story content! otherwise, i hope you enjoy. 
> 
> (the title is from the song, a better son/daughter by rilo kiley, i would recommend listening to it)

It'd been many years since the nightmares about his childhood had plagued him, but being back in Nifleheim, back here, this horrible place was almost enough to wake him up screaming in the middle of the night all over again. He almost wanted to scream, maybe it'd make him feel a little better about all that had happened in the past couple days; Noct throwing him off a train, a nightmarish daemon version of his father coming to try and turn him into one of those things just like when he was little, and that creep Ardyn pinning him up my a butterfly just to mess with the others when they inevitably found him...it was all on a level of fucked up he just wasn't used to in such a short amount of time.

 

When did things get this bad? A couple weeks ago they were running around Altissa, having a good time in preparation for Noct's wedding and seeing Lady Lunafreya for the first time--if only they could go back in time. Maybe stop some of the craziness before it even got the chance to even start, and save some of the people they had lost along the way.

 

He turned over on the nasty barrack mattress they'd all decided to call it on a night on, and looked to his friends. He could see how bad Ignis' scars were when he wasn’t wearing his glasses to cover them, trying to make everyone not think about how he couldn’t even see and that he was just fine fighting like old times. His eyes wandered to Gladio--passed out, spread eagle on a bed that could barely accommodate half of him, much less the entire six foot six inches of the royal shield--who'd managed to start looking like an overused cutting board these days, some scars long healed and some looking as recent as a couple hours ago. Prompto couldn’t even bear to look at Noct. He could hear the prince whimpering in his sleep, some brand of terrible nightmare gripping his sleep; many years of hanging out and sleeping over at Noct's apartment told him he should try and wake him up, at least make an effort to make him feel better, but his heart just wasn’t in it.

 

Instead, he quietly got up out of the bunk, pulled on his boots, and made his way out of the corridor to the closest thing to fresh air he could manage in this place, seeing as he couldn't make it outside unless he ran halfway back to Lucis. It wasn’t like it'd matter, the sun barely came out these days and there weren't  _ that _ many daemons crawling around here.

 

It was quiet and there was no one around; that was all he really wanted for a while so he could have the breakdown that was a long time coming. He made sure his sobs weren't quite loud enough to arouse suspicion, and sat perched up on top of one of the lower buildings so he could keep a lookout for anything suspicious or one of his friends coming to find him out of worry. He didn't want to cause any more trouble than he already did, everyone had bigger problems literally looming over their heads. He had to play the part he always did, more than ever, but even he was finding it hard to keep up a smile when his friends knew his fucked up past and didn't even bat an eye. The guys were always pretty bad at doing the whole comforting thing--Noct especially, but hey, he was kinda used to his weird best friend's brand of it--but he was still hoping that they'd say a little more than a couple encouraging words before they were off again, fighting the empire. Not like he'd say a word to them about it, but it still nagged at him. The blond was so caught up in his own thoughts that he almost didn’t notice the loud crashing and banging of someone really clumsy trying to navigate an imperial stronghold.

 

"Prompto, are you there?"  _ Oh god it's Ignis _ , Prompto thought,  _ he's gonna wake the entire army that's left in the base _ . He made his way down from his perch, gave himself a couple seconds to compose himself as best as someone could in such a terrible situation, and made his way to the older man, gently putting his hand on his shoulder. "Ah, there you are. I heard you get up, but you didn't return. Is everything alright?"

 

"I-it's nothing. Had to take a leak!"  _ Smooth, Argentum, real smooth. _

 

"So you went halfway across the base to do it?" Ignis shifted his gaze to around where Prompto was, not exactly looking straight at him. "I doubt the Magitek Troopers would have complained if you hadn't found the proper facility." That made the both of them laugh a little. "Shall we go back? You must be exhausted from everything."

 

"I, uh. Be there in a minute?" Prompto just bit down on his lip, not wanting to have the words he wanted to say come out. "You can make your way back, yeah? It's just a couple turns and go straight..." Suddenly, and guiltily, he felt grateful that Ignis couldn’t see a damn thing. If either of the others could see his face right now, they'd pick up on some semblance of what was going on in his head.

 

"Hm. I see." The older man's brow furrowed for a moment, lost in thought for a fleeting moment, before he reached out to rest his free hand on the other's arm. Slowly, the hand made its way up to Prompto’s shoulder until it reached his face. The pensive expression on Ignis' face quickly faded to worry, and a sigh escaped his lips. "You're a terrible liar, Prompto."

 

"H-hey, I'm not that bad..." He really should've wiped his face, he could feel traitor tears falling down his cheeks all over again. He was really banking on no one being around to see this...

 

"Remember that time you tried to sneak Noct out to a party at midnight? Said you two had a project on--"

 

"--...the female anatomy...and we were gonna need to observe up close… Not one of my best moments."

 

"They  _ are _ few and far between."

 

"I thought you were supposed to be comforting me here, Iggy, not making me feel worse." He was smiling, even Ignis could hear it in his voice. "Let's, uh, go back. No need to stay out here and make awkward small talk." He frowned, wanting to bring up what really was wrong. How do you even say hey, ‘I'm a brand of horrible lab experiment, could you kindly just lock me back in a cage or kill me now?’ to the people you consider your best friends without getting them even more upset? Especially when you were supposed to be the one who kept everyone laughing despite the fact there was a war going on? 

 

He was about to get up, but Ignis pulled him back down again before he could even make a move. "C'mon dude, let's just go back to sleep before we gotta spend another day running around this place." As much as he tried to dance around the topic at hand, he had a point. They were at the chancellor's mercy until they reclaimed the crystal and Noct gave him the ass-kicking that was a long time coming.

 

"Surely, we can walk and you can talk about what's got you all twisted up inside, yes? No use in doing nothing about it." Ignis stood up, pulling Prompto up with him. Instead of grabbing onto his hand, Ignis elected to hook his arm in with the other's so he at least could keep him a little bit closer. He wasn't much for physical affection, but he'd make an exception. "You lead, I'll listen. I doubt you want me to make another round of racket trying to lead both of us back. Blind leading the blind."

 

"God Ignis, you make waaay too many jokes about your own problems."

 

"I learned from you." There’s an expected amount of affection in those words, and it makes Prompto’s heart do a weird leap in his chest.

 

"Yeah, well. Not the best teacher, seeing as I can't even say anything serious when I'm upset." He decided to take it slow with his steps, not wanting to drag the other along and wanting to try and get out what he was doing such a terrible job at keeping in. "Can't come up with any good jokes when I can't even put up a brave face about everything that's happening. I'm surprised you guys even keep me around after I told you about the  **_thing_ ** I really am." 

 

"The only thing you are is yourself, Prompto. Don't doubt for a moment we'd think less of you because you're not originally from Lucis."

 

"Easy for you to say. If this was a couple years ago and you all found out about this, you would've made Noct drop me like yesterday's news." Prompto looked away, momentarily wondering why he was averting his gaze when the other couldn't exactly look him in the eyes. He attributed it to habit. "Doubt any of you guys would've appreciated having a 'Niff spy getting close to the crown prince." He recalled that Ignis didn't appreciate him taking up so much of Noctis' time when they were younger either, telling the king himself that he was a terrible influence when they were all invited for dinner together.

 

"Well, it's a good thing that we never had one of those among us. Just a very clumsy playboy who was bad at even that."  _ Ah, just like Ignis, kicking me when I'm down. _ Prompto inwardly, and pretty outwardly, wondered where this was going. "I'll admit, I didn't like you much at first. You were… a distraction that seemed to get out of hand when Noct would blow off training or his supplementary reading so he could goof off with you at the arcade or dragging him along so you could go chase after your girl of the hour. However, spending time with you these past couple months has made me change my mind quite a bit." At that, Ignis smiled. "You'd never betray Noctis, Prompto. If you were merely a spy, would you have spent so long getting up the courage to make friends with him?" And with that, Prompto could feel his heart drop in his chest.

 

"You noticed too?" C'mon, he didn't look anything at all like he did when he was a kid... "You all keep saying you noticed but didn't say a thing! Could've saved me a couple years of trouble."

 

"You obviously needed to take the first step in your own time. With such a secret...I can only imagine how hard it must have been for you." The rest of the group all led relatively sheltered lives compared to him, surrounded by family in one way or another. Ignis was always at Noctis' side from a young age, Gladio had his whole family and eventually warmed up to the prince, and Noctis himself had all three of them at one point or another, but Prompto was all alone most of the time, and Ignis was pretty sure he always lied about his parents being too busy in lieu of outright admitting that he didn't have any. "We are all here for you now, regardless of who you were before. There's no need to keep everything to yourself." He looked in--what he hoped to be--the other's direction and gave a smile.

 

Yeah. He was...he was Prompto now, member of the Crownsguard. He kept Noct safe, he was a photographer, he loved chocobos, he...he had a place to belong. He wasn’t MT-102520 anymore, and he never would be again. "Yeah! Thanks, Ignis. I needed that." He still felt like crap, however.

 

"Pay it no mind. If you also need, say, a literal shoulder to cry on..."

 

"Oh, I uh...I don't want to stain your jacket or anything."

 

"That's the last thing on my mind, truly. Do what you must to feel better, Prompto." And that was it, like a dam breaking, the shorter man just grabbed onto him and let it all flow out. A gentle pat on the back was all he could offer the blond, words lost to him with this sort of thing. He was surprised at how quiet Prompto was--he was so loud when they were fighting or in the car, rambunctious like a puppy and as noisy as one to boot--but didn’t say a word until he felt the shaking leave the other's shoulders. There were still soft, weak sobs, but they were silent in a matter of moments. "Better?"

 

After a shaky breath (and a nod that he soon realized the other couldn’t even see he was doing), Prompto spoke. "Y-yeah. Thanks." He felt the smallest of smiles come back to his face, and it didn’t feel like he was trying too hard to do it. "I owe you big time, Ignis...but let's keep this between us, okay?"

 

"I understand. And please, it's nothing. You were the only one who stood up for me back in Carnatica instead of treating me like an invalid." He patted Prompto on the shoulder. "The very least I could do is try and help you get back to your usual self. I speak for the others and myself when I say that we all miss your optimism. God knows we need a bit of it right now." With that, they resumed walking in comfortable silence towards the dormitory where the others were still sleeping; sans the electronic beeping of the doors opening, they made the utmost effort to not wake Gladio and Noct (the former obviously comatose from the snoring alone).

 

Prompto was about to lead Ignis to the bunk he was sleeping in--closest to Noct, like the good chamberlain he was--but he stopped short. "You wanna...share a bunk? It's kinda cold..."  _ It's not weird to ask, right? We've all slept in a tent together for the past couple months... _ "No sleeves and all."

 

"Just help me get down onto it?"

 

"No problem." He took the cane out of Ignis' hand and rested it against the makeshift night table before lowering the both of them down onto the bunk with a soft thud. He expected Ignis to turn over and face away from him, but the older man took off his glasses, set them next to the pillow, and flopped down with an arm around the blond, holding him close.

  
It felt nice, and he was kinda hoping Ignis wouldn't be opposed to making this a regular thing, once they were out of this place.

**Author's Note:**

> find me on tumblr and twitter at tempestamicitia! hopefully i'll write some more actual shippy ignis/prompto stuff soon 'cause, man finishing the game made me really appreciate how close they seem to get.


End file.
